The mapmakers have amassed some 80 maps for Food: An Atlas, ranging from surplus in Northeast Italy to meat production in Maryland. The goal is to spread information about various food systems so they can be adapted locally.

Social media is enhancing digital cooperation to enable some intriguing grass-roots projects such as this one.

I like pasta; I like it a lot. Barely a week goes by without at least one pasta dish gracing our dinner table. And therein lies the problem; its very ubiquity. Being seen as a cheap choice, or a quick fix, serve to diminish its lustre and turn it into mid week meal fodder for those times when you can barely be bothered to boil the kettle and pop open a jar of pesto.

My recent trip to Italy served as the perfect opportunity to become acquainted with the simple delights of dough again. Wherever you go, from the high up in the Alps to the heel of the boot, you will find it on every dinner table. It may come in different shapes (or the same shapes with different names), dried or fresh, stuffed or with sauce, but it will always be there, made with an understated love and care that elevates it far above merely flour and water.

Here's some of the highlights we sampled on our travels in Tuscany, Umbria, Le Marche and San Marino.

There is no “African” food.But Americans are beginning to try the continent’s different regional cuisines — and they’re liking them...

What is considered ethnic foods changes over time. For example, many Americans no longer consider Italian 'ethnic food' but part of mainstream culture while it was not 100 years ago. What drives our interest in ethnic foods and what cultural exchanges occurs in the packaging of culture in an edible commodity?

“Ciao!” says the short, elderly woman standing behind the counter. On her apron are the words “Gastronomia Beltrami, Cartoceto, Italy.” This is Elide Beltrami, wife of Vittorio Beltrami, a man who has been ordained the “Einstein of cheese” by famous chef Lidia Matticchio Bastianich. With a wide, warm smile, Elide makes me feel as welcome as if I were walking into my local corner store.

However, Gastronomia Beltrami is not just your average corner store. Inside the front glass case are piles of pecorino cheese, made from the milk of the Beltramis’ sheep. To the left, stacked on wooden shelves, are jars of fig and other fruit jams, made by Elide and her family and wrapped in brown paper and ribbon. Lastly, on a wide oak cupboard are bottles of glistening green olive oil—a product that brought this family name much praise in the early 1900s—harvested from the Beltramis’ groves and pressed in a 500-year-old palace.

A petite woman in her mid-thirties with short dark-brown hair comes from the back and flashes a smile. This is Cristiana Beltrami, the daughter of Vittorio and Elide Beltrami. “Let’s go on a tour,” she says and I follow her to her car. As she drives, Cristiana explains that she has worked at the shop for 15 years, since graduating with a degree in economics from the University of Urbino.

Our first stop overlooks the town; the view is filled with olive trees, churches, hills, and fields. Cartoceto is located in the Marche region and is a municipality in the province of Pesaro and Urbino. Cristiana explains that Cartoceto is part of an association called “Città Dell’Olio”—City of Oil—because of the town’s large production of olive oil. The Marche region, she explains, was a church territory in the 1500s, with a lot of priests, churches, and monasteries. “The olive oil produced in this area would all go to Rome.”The Beltramis have been among the region’s olive growers since 1870. In the 1960s, Vittorio’s father, Quindi, opened a tabacchi store that sold everything including the family-made olive oil. Vittorio and Elide took over the business in 1980 and named it Gastronomia Beltrami, adding cheese and jams. These days, the family grows 20 different varieties of olives in a secluded area called “Covo dei Briganti”—hideout of bandits—where men once took refuge to avoid joining the military. Once a week, the olives are picked by hand. These olives are then taken back to town to be pressed in the old Rusticucci Palace, originally owned by a cardinal in the 1500s, to create the final product, extra virgin olive oil...

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